TSA sued over airport body scanners

Case comes on the heels of a scathing inspector general report

The Transportation Security Administration is facing a new lawsuit over its controversial body scanners, in a case that accuses the agency of pushing ahead with the devices without the required regulations.

Three limited-government and civil-liberties groups filed suit Wednesday against the agency before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

The plaintiffs — the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), and The Rutherford Institution – make a simple argument: the TSA doesn’t actually have rules for the use of body scanners.

“There is no regulation controlling the use of body scanners right now,” Marc Scribner, a research fellow at CEI, told FoxNews.com. “TSA has been using scanners the last seven years but that entire span of time they’ve been operating without a regulation.”

The groups are asking the court to force the agency to propose system regulations within 90 days. The case comes on the heels of a scathing inspector general report that found major security gaps at airport checkpoints.

The same D.C. federal appeals court ruled in 2011 that the agency needed to develop rules for scanners under the Administrative Procedure Act. The TSA proposed ideas in 2013, but has yet to follow through. Since 2007 the agency has installed 740 scanners across 160 airports. The plaintiffs want the court to enforce its prior ruling.